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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Royal Danish Experience!

Here's a story of a lovely little American exchange student in Copenhagen who goes to the Danish Royal theatre with her her Danish buddy and Danish buddy's mom and friend. They treated the American to tickets to the ballet Onegin (which was very kind of them!). The theatre is a lovely old European building, with creaking wooden floors, pretty marble busts, smooth velvet curtains and colorful walls, just as you imagine a theatre experience should be.

The seats were amazing! Second tier, front row, right in front of the stage - the view of the theatre from that row is pictured above. Seats so close, that this American exchange student could see the sweat off the dancer's faces. Just as the house lights were to go down, everyone in the theatre stood up. This American exchange girl was confused. She turned to her Danish buddy (a Danish buddy is someone the Copenhagen Business School international office puts together to help the exchange students transition to life in Denmark) and asks, "why is everyone standing?"

It seems standing is the protocol for when a member of royalty is in the house. Guess who should be watching the ballet this evening....Queen Maragethe II of Denmark!! American exchange girl, who happens to be an avid royal watcher, well to put it mildly, I freaked out! There in the same building, with little ol'e moi was the Queen of Denmark! Eeck!!!

Not only was the ballet wonderful, with phenomenal dancing talent and costumes to die for (not allowed to take pictures during the performance otherwise I would include here) but I was watching it with the Queen of Denmark! OH MY GOD! And, and, to top it all off, the Queen was directly across from me. Her seats and our seats were on the same level in the theatre (you could have drawn a straight line from her to us).

As I was snapping this picture above, she actually looked at me and I waved, but she didn't wave back. Her bodyguard was laughing at me (probably because I was the only one in the theatre taking a snap of the Queen). I'm sorry the photo is crap, I really am not a good photographer, but that is her!

I tell you, just when I think my Danish experience can't be topped, something amazing happens. What a fantastic evening!!

8 Comments:

Uh, not for nothing, but I just heard on CNN that "Danish authorities are looking for an American exchange student who has been stalking the royal family ... said student, was last seen wearing a lampshade and leading a conga line in the hallway of her apartment building in Copenhagen"

having seen how giddy you are around D and E-level american celebrities, i can only imagine how you were with the queen! i would've paid money to watch that show. i'm terribly excited for you; that really is very cool no matter how you slice it. that's so up your alley, i know you must still be on cloud 9. what a fantastic experience!

You totally crack me up, VA gal. I can just see you there taking pics and waving at the queen! Too, too funny - and I know it was a complete and utter blast for you. I'm so glad you got to have that experience! :-)